Post by darkpulse on Aug 26, 2018 23:36:18 GMT -6

It's been a whirlwind of a summer for me - so much of a whirlwind that I'd actually forgotten to play this. With going back to work in two weeks, it was time to get this squared away.

THE GOOD

Control and such feels really good, though it is slightly awkward to master the "aimed" shard powers, and in the case of those cannons on the ship, that fuse is a little small and not so obvious the first time or two. Other than that though, felt nice and solid.

Loved the 3D effect in the approach to the castle. I hope there's a couple more areas where tricks like this can be used - obviously while this will be 2D gameplay in a 3D plane, that was definitely a very nice touch.

The permanent stat boosts for the food items are actually a really nice touch, something that encourages the player to actually make use of the system. Unfortunately past that I don't know how useful it will be, but at least with this you are incentivized to eat it once, if never again.

THE BAD

Painfully short. I know, I know... it's a demo. I still feel like we could've gotten a little more out of it than what we did. There were plenty of areas (even in the first area, the ship) where the map showed an area existed (as revealed by the actual map you find!), but you just could not get to it, and some more enterprising people figured out some movement cheats that actually give a good bit more area to play with, especially when the map screen makes it seem like you'll actually get a decent-sized area with the triggers. At the very least I feel like it would've been a bit better if it had sealed off rooms, but any room you could enter, you could fully explore. Understandably this isn't too feasible with the castle layout though. Oh well.

Those bats are way nastier than they should be. You get little warning they're there, they swoop down pretty swiftly, hit surprisingly hard for a mere bat, and worse, their pattern seems to fluctuate a bit depending on if you're standing or crouching! There's been times where I'd perfectly hit bats ducking, but then the third seemed to swoop up and pass just over my head before I could hit it.

It's been mentioned to death, but yeah, you can cheese the crap out of Zangetsu. I'm not sure if his seemingly never-ending stack of HP was due to any character weakness, or if the devs assume you are not supposed to beat him for this demo, or if it's actually a timed fight where Dominique ends it after awhile. Seemed to take a hell of a lot of punishment though.

Quest dialogue seems a bit confusing. It gives the location of the person who gave the quest, rather than the locations where you could potentially find monsters for the quest. I think that either that should be added, or better yet, have it so that when you look at the quest info, it can pull up the map and show you both where monsters for that quest can be found, as well as where to go to turn it in. If you don't want to give "room"-grain control for that, at least make it highlight a map region - assuming, of course, the player has seen/been to that region in the first place.

THE UGLY

Miriam's lip movements definitely need some work in conversation scenes. They all do, in fact, but she's easily the worst offender here. To be kind of blunt, it seemed less like she was talking, and more opening her mouth wide and waiting to bed fed, like a little chick. This may simply be a case of beta-itis, but I definitely hope that this is something that gets improved upon in future iterations.

Conversations in general could use some work. Some more animations here would be nice - if you're going to use 3D models here, make use of that to have them not just standing in one pose and yakking away. Again, this might be simply due to the beta, but I do think that it would be useful. Miriam getting all angry but standing there with her hand on her hip just doesn't sell it the same way as her looking furious in her body language would be.

Miriam's dip in the blood fountain (obviously an area we'll get to sink into later during the full game) has her coming out way too cleanly. It'd be kind of neat if she were bloodstained and have a shader effect that would show that her clothes got soaked in blood, then slowly let the blood drip off her while leaving behind some bloody footprints and blood drops for awhile. I was actually kind of surprised that this didn't happen.

Might be something too nitpicky, but once you reach the village, if you go back into the ship area, it's sailing along just as it'd always been. Maybe this is just due to the beta, but it'd be kind of neat if we had the ship just at rest and grounded. (Maybe even have an area or two in her only accessible due to the ship's tilt once it's been grounded - for the benefit of those who don't realize this game will have you backtracking plenty, this would be a nice introduction to it, since yes, this will be some people's first Igavania).

I've been playing these games for so long it's a bit weird for me to hit another key to fire my shard attack - I reflexively find myself hitting Up + Attack to do it. Perhaps allow that as a config option.

Voice/language options please! I was aware of the secret language select (hit all four shoulder buttons), but I think that would be good as an actual selectable option.

While it's kind of amusing to be able to game the alchemy system (buy components for fairly cheap, craft weapon, sell weapon for more than the components cost), that is probably something that needs to be balanced out somehow. There's several such weapons this can be done via.

Not sure if the "The crystals will overtake you if you have too many" is plot service, or will become an actual gameplay mechanic. Knowing Iga, it could be either way.

Probably also due to the beta, but there probably does need to be some polish on the atmosphere in general. It's heading in the right direction though.

Please don't make us collect furniture, somewhere on my GBA, Juste is still picking up random chairs and crap.

So far this is all I can think of that's come to mind. I'll add more to this post if I think about anything more, though.

Busterific: While I've enjoyed a lot of the games, a movie based on it just seems like a bad idea to me. I can't see it as coming out better than something along the lines of a Saturday Morning cartoon at best.Jan 15, 2019 18:57:32 GMT -6

Brainiac: I've been following the info about that film for quite some time, Galamoth. I have yet to be convinced it's anything other than a bad idea.Jan 16, 2019 9:20:53 GMT -6

Galamoth: Brainiac I'd have pretty much the same reaction to the film that BDG has in the video I linked.Jan 16, 2019 12:20:12 GMT -6

Busterific: The first 30 seconds of that video are priceless.Jan 16, 2019 19:27:48 GMT -6

Arsenical: Jim Carrey as eggman?... Im iterested in this. other than that i can't wait to see my lil brother (a hardcore sonic fankid) witness his favorite character in what it could be another disastrous production. poor Sonic Jan 16, 2019 20:53:43 GMT -6

Cale: Just thinking of stuff like Cthulhu. Or space, or the sea. When I was a kid I was terrified of deep water and things like Godzilla. Somehow I started to love them. Now I can go on the ocean without fear, and water creatures thrill me.Jan 17, 2019 15:19:20 GMT -6

Enkeria: Sonic has been on my watchlist for a few years on IMDB. Hearing Jim Carrey being in it, it seems it will be his last movie. Jan 17, 2019 15:20:53 GMT -6

Arsenical: i think i should avoid the forums until the whole L/M issue is "resolved" or until the very annoyed people calm down a little... legit i came to check on the update thread for the sweet GameFAQs pool and *sigh* Jan 18, 2019 20:54:17 GMT -6*